The President of Crypto Capital, a payment processing firm with ties to Bitfinex has been arrested by the Polish authorities over accusations of money laundering.
The President Ivan Manuel Molina Lee according to local Polish news portal RMF24 and newspaper W Polityce has been extradited to the Capital of Poland Warsaw under police escort.
The prosecutors claimed the arrest was as a result of Ivan Manuel’s laundering upto 1.5 billion zlotyes an equivalent of $390,000,000 from illegal sources. This has been forfeited to the State Treasury and amounts to the largest in the history of the Polish prosecutor’s office.
Amongst the crimes committed according to local news portal, was facilitating the movement of dirty money for Columbian drug cartels using a cryptocurrency exchange.
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has been trying to recover its $850 million held with Crypto Capital and it has applied to a US court to subpoena Vice President of TCA Bancorp, Monroe Rondell.
According to the filing made, Bitfinex showed that Crypto Capital operated account(s) with TCA Bancorp and were used to initiate the transfer of funds itself and that VP TCA Bancorp may have information and documents important to its claims.
According to a letter signed by the VP of TCA Bancorp, a little more than $300 million Bitfinex funds is held at the TCA on behalf of a client referred to as Global Trade Solutions AG (GTS), doing business under the name Crypto Capital.
Because of the nature of the issue, Bitfinex has applied to depose Monroe Rondell and obtain documented records of communication with executives of Crypto Capital, GTS who are said to be related by blood.
Executives of both firms have been reportedly indicted by the US Department of Justice for bank fraud charges.
Based on a Press Release issued by the US Attorney’s office, Crypto Capital has also been involved in illegal activities and its executives had been charged with bank fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and a count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Crypto Capital has reportedly done business with the now defunct QuadrigaCX, Bitt, BTCC and Kraken according to its website.
Ivan Manuel has been taken for questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
